John Riceburg: Amazon on strike

Amazon

It's close enough to magic, right? You just push a button on your computer and a book appears out of thin air in your mailbox. "I just realized I forgot to get a Christmas gift for Aunt Helga in Pisshausen!" Well, the magic of Amazon is here for you, right? And we all need a little magic around Christmas.

It's often cheaper than other retailers, it's quick and it involves minimal engagement. And Aunt Helga's happy.

But like with all "magic", their secret is less than awe-inspiring: Amazon.de employs more than 9000 workers in their their nine giant warehouses across Germany to "pick" and "pack" products. The "pickers" carry a hand scanner at all times so every second of idleness can be measured. They walk up to 20 kilometres a day, and many of them get sick: the illness rate at Amazon's plants can be as high as 25 percent – the average for all workers in Germany is below 4 percent.

No wonder Amazon's workers are angry. Since Monday, 2500 of them have been on strike in seven of the company's nine warehouses. The trade union ver.di is demanding a Tarifvertrag (a collective bargaining agreement) and has been organizing strikes since May 2013. This week – the week with the highest revenue right before Christmas – is witnessing the biggest strikes yet.

Sure, the workers get somewhat more than the upcoming minimum wage (€9.75 per hour at their newest location in Brieselang, for example). But with a Tarifvertrag, they would get a starting wage of €11.40 plus a Christmas bonus of €1000. Amazon currently employs as many people as possible with befristete (limited) contracts: They are expected to give 110 percent in the hope that their contract will be renewed. The workers want job security and, above all, Respekt.

At the Amazon warehouse in Brieselang, Brandenburg a few dozen kilometres past Spandau, most of the workers come from Berlin and have to drive up to two hours to work. Many Amazon workers are sent straight from the Jobcenter – if they refuse this job opportunity, they can have their benefits cut. Many of the managers are recruited from the German army in order to create an appropriately "friendly" work environment. And while a worker might pay 20 percent of his or her income in taxes, the corporation, based in the tax-haven of Luxemburg, pays only 1 percent!

So I'm supporting the strike. When you buy something from Amazon, write a product review: "The book was okay, but it would have been better if the workers had a Tarifvertrag!" Or you can order a gift card which will be proofread by a worker: "For better working conditions at Amazon! I support the strike!" Or you can sign an online petition for better conditions. Or you can order somewhere else.

And one last thing: Is Amazon actually that convenient? If I order a book from Amazon tonight, it will ship tomorrow and arrive the day after. But since my delivery person almost never tries to actually deliver the package at my building, I have to wait one more day and ride my bike several kilometres to the next post office. That's three days. In contrast, there's a book shop just 500 metres from my house. I can call them anytime before 7pm and have them order just about any book available in Germany – including English titles! Then I can pick it up the next day at 10am. The price is the same thanks to Germany's Buchpreisbindung, and I don't pay for shipping.

Amazon's extremely effective magic trick has been to convince us all that it's good for everyone.

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Comments (4)

Just to get the facts right...

In your product review shoudln't write anything like: "The book was okay, but it would have been better if the workers had a Tarifvertrag!" Because they have a Tarifvertrag ("Logistik"), they just want a different one ("Einzelhandel").

Gilbertmore than 4 years ago

if you like books

then don't worry about paying more in a store. germany has a law in which stores must sell books at the same price, so the local shop around the corner will not be more expensive than from amazon, and you can start reading it sooner.

dropmore than 4 years ago

boycott

Amazon in the UK, due to being registered in Luxembourg, paid a little over three million quid in taxes on four BILLION of earnings last year. That is LESS THAN 0.1% TAX!!!!

I find that completely disgusting. And so I am boycotting Amazon. I would rather pay more for a book that I buy it in a book store, thus helping to keep the book store open, and help them pay their staff who, after all, are my neighbours, than save a few Euros. Shopping with Amazon is a false economy. It leads to book stores closing, which negatively effects the communities we live in.

Another advantage to using book stores rather than Amazon is it makes me leave the office, enter the "real world", and interact with other Earthlings. Most every time I do this I bump into a friend and have an interesting and inspiring conversation. Compare this to my colleague, who buys everything online, and who constantly complains about how boring his life is! Online shopping makes your experience of life smaller and meaner.

Boycotting Amazon will not only show them you think they should contribute their fair share to society the way the rest of us are forced to, but will also make your life way more interesting!!!

If you're looking for English books to read, I have just started a very very small lending library in my favourite cafe - EAT, Kottbusserdamm 94 (the food there is excellent, and cheap!) This is my little "community project", partly set up to support this great cafe, and partly because I don't want to sell my old books for 1 euro to second-hand book stores that re-sell them for 7 euros!!! I'd rather all can profit, than just one or two. So if you need something to read, go take a look. And if you have old books you don't want, please contribute them to the library! Thanks!

Merry Christmas!

Theo Van Schopesmore than 4 years ago

boycott

Amazon in the UK, due to being registered in Luxembourg, paid a little over three million quid in taxes on four BILLION of earnings last year. That is LESS THAN 0.1% TAX!!!!

I find that completely disgusting. And so I am boycotting Amazon. I would rather pay more for a book that I buy it in a book store, thus helping to keep the book store open, and help them pay their staff who, after all, are my neighbours, than save a few Euros. Shopping with Amazon is a false economy. It leads to book stores closing, which negatively effects the communities we live in.

Another advantage to using book stores rather than Amazon is it makes me leave the office, enter the "real world", and interact with other Earthlings. Most every time I do this I bump into a friend and have an interesting and inspiring conversation. Compare this to my colleague, who buys everything online, and who constantly complains about how boring his life is! Online shopping makes your experience of life smaller and meaner.

Boycotting Amazon will not only show them you think they should contribute their fair share to society the way the rest of us are forced to, but will also make your life way more interesting!!!

If you're looking for English books to read, I have just started a very very small lending library in my favourite cafe - EAT, Kottbusserdamm 94 (the food there is excellent, and cheap!) This is my little "community project", partly set up to support this great cafe, and partly because I don't want to sell my old books for 1 euro to second-hand book stores that re-sell them for 7 euros!!! I'd rather all can profit, than just one or two. So if you need something to read, go take a look. And if you have old books you don't want, please contribute them to the library! Thanks!